band of brothers

Standing at Silent Attention...Rows of empty soldier's boots serve as a shocking and painful reminder
of the human cost of the Iraq War.

I don't know which was more heartbreaking...the boots that looked as
if they were well-worn, as if they had marched over miles of rigorous
terrain, or the boots that looked brand new, barely out of the box
with hardly a mark on them. Waves of utter sadness swept over me
while positioning for this shot; the reality of lost lives represented
in rows of empty soles...

Freedom always comes at a cost. It is one of the reasons we should value it more than we do. This is the sort of thing children should see, like the WWII memorials, and the independence ones too. They should know that good people fought and died for what they have.

I do not know the background to this exhibit. I do not know if it is pro or anti war. Perhaps knowing one or the other would ruin the message that I prefer to take from it; and I have strong feelings on the subject that I don't want to go into in too great a detail.

Save to say that I salute those who make this sacrifice, even if it may appear senseless, for a conflict that perhaps should not have been allowed to drag on so long. Nonetheless, it is about human nature, and our own existence. And gratitude for the good aspects of life.

like Tim Burns said, this tragic image is the tip of the most terrible tragedy caused by politicians and paid for by ordinary people"This American government--what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will. It is a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves."Henry David Thoreau 1849--Seen on your photo stream.(?)